Interior Alaska students create warm welcome for new kids

NORTH POLE, Alaska — Abby Creer knows what it is like to be the new kid at school.

Her dad is in the military and she has moved around a lot: from Utah to Washington to Texas to Alaska and back to Texas, Washington and Alaska.

“Even thought it’s scary, you meet new friends,” she said.

The seventh-grader at North Pole Middle School is helping with a project to make other new students feel more welcome. Schools are creating welcome videos and posting them on their websites. Videos have been created for Arctic Light, Hunter, Joy, Ladd and Nordale elementary schools, and production is underway for four more videos at the North Pole Middle School, North Pole High School, Ben Eielson Junior/Senior High School and Fairbanks Building Educational Success Together, or BEST, a homeschool program. In the fall, production will begin at an additional six elementary schools.